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Stuck in the past: Universities, research and innovation in Lebanon

If you have read this blog before you’ll know that I’m getting
back to a subject that I’ve always discussed, but it’s important, it’s essential
and it deserves having more emphasis. Discussing it over and over again is the only way to promote how much
important it has become.

To keep it brief, I don’t want to elaborate and write very lengthy
paragraphs but I just want to say that throughout history and up till now, what
defined a civilization were the things that it created and invented, innovation is what
made civilizations great, and what gave to each of them its distinctive
identity.

Our universities in Lebanon still provide top quality
education but when it comes to research and innovation there’s an eerie void
that shouldn’t last.

The education that we’re providing to our students is
something from the past, it’s been discovered and formulated and it has become
part of the history. Now what about giving them something for the future, what
about involving them in crafting something for the future not only in applying
information from the past, but also by using the leverage power of their minds to
create things out of nothing, what about that? It’s beautiful and interesting,
but unfortunately we’re far from it in Lebanon. Even the most prestigious universities
in Lebanon have mediocre budgets for research and what is worse is that they
have no strategy or vision to promote research and make it at the heart of the
academic experience of their students, and at the heart of their existence as
academic institutions as well.
The huge impact of this “stuck in the past” mentality is the unfortunate lack
of innovation and creativity in our society and our economy. I’ve been
following the start-up scene in Lebanon and the MENA region in general, and it’s
really sad that we didn’t see any of these start-ups achieve an important
success. The main reason in my opinion is the lack of innovation.

If I ask you to give me two start-ups from Lebanon and the ME region, what will be
the first names to pop in your head? I’m sure that many of you won’t be able to
give two names and for those who can give a couple of names please tell me what
difference did these start-ups make and how much success did they achieve during
the course of their life time? Not much, right?
If I want to answer that question the first two names that come up in my mind
are Cinemoz and MarkaVIP. Cinemoz is simply a copy of the American Hulu, the
difference is that cinemoz has a library of Arabic movies and series, surely
some people will argue that it offered too a technical solution to overcome the
hurdle of the underdeveloped infrastructure in the region used for streaming
media, but a technical solution is an on daily basis engineering routine it’s
not innovation, and the whole concept of cinemoz is essentially a replica of
Hulu, we’re just following the trend.
MarkaVIP is an online discount store offering a wide range of mid to high end
brands, again what’s new here? Nothing, we neither invented e-commerce nor came
up with the e-discount concept, it’s a copy of an activity that has matured for
a long while in the west.

People are not searching to innovate, in Lebanon being early adopters in the region for a foreign technology makes us feel like gods coming to life straight down from the greek
mythology, and if you think of it it’s really ridiculous. Following the trend
and just following the trend is silly. Start-ups, technology conferences,
accelerators, are all by themselves imported concepts because they became the
trend in the west, and all these events loaded with talks that hold less value
than their form and size, are more about social events than real work. People
tend to associate themselves with them to get a social status and to boost
their egos while the work done and achieved is little, and if you find this
statement as incorrect please enlighten me and give me details on results, what
were the results of these events over the last few years?

Now back to universities and the lack of research, it is the
main problem because it’s the reason why we lack this engine of innovation,
most of the successful American start-ups and ventures were started by PhD
students and PhD programs’ drop outs. It is extremely important to promote the “think,
create, innovate” culture to be able to put forward something new and
interesting, the social and economic impacts of such a culture will be huge so
it’s about time that we start giving this sector the big importance it deserves.
Researching and discovering new ways to do things is an essential factor for any
civilization that wants to grow, to promote itself and to protect itself.

So think, create, and innovate and always ask yourself: Where
do I want to go today? The possibilities are endless if you harness the
potential you have in your mind.

Stuck in the past: Universities, research and innovation in Lebanon

If you have read this blog before you’ll know that I’m getting
back to a subject that I’ve always discussed, but it’s important, it’s essential
and it deserves having more emphasis. Discussing it over and over again is the only way to promote how much
important it has become.

To keep it brief, I don’t want to elaborate and write very lengthy
paragraphs but I just want to say that throughout history and up till now, what
defined a civilization were the things that it created and invented, innovation is what
made civilizations great, and what gave to each of them its distinctive
identity.

Our universities in Lebanon still provide top quality
education but when it comes to research and innovation there’s an eerie void
that shouldn’t last.

The education that we’re providing to our students is
something from the past, it’s been discovered and formulated and it has become
part of the history. Now what about giving them something for the future, what
about involving them in crafting something for the future not only in applying
information from the past, but also by using the leverage power of their minds to
create things out of nothing, what about that? It’s beautiful and interesting,
but unfortunately we’re far from it in Lebanon. Even the most prestigious universities
in Lebanon have mediocre budgets for research and what is worse is that they
have no strategy or vision to promote research and make it at the heart of the
academic experience of their students, and at the heart of their existence as
academic institutions as well.
The huge impact of this “stuck in the past” mentality is the unfortunate lack
of innovation and creativity in our society and our economy. I’ve been
following the start-up scene in Lebanon and the MENA region in general, and it’s
really sad that we didn’t see any of these start-ups achieve an important
success. The main reason in my opinion is the lack of innovation.

If I ask you to give me two start-ups from Lebanon and the ME region, what will be
the first names to pop in your head? I’m sure that many of you won’t be able to
give two names and for those who can give a couple of names please tell me what
difference did these start-ups make and how much success did they achieve during
the course of their life time? Not much, right?
If I want to answer that question the first two names that come up in my mind
are Cinemoz and MarkaVIP. Cinemoz is simply a copy of the American Hulu, the
difference is that cinemoz has a library of Arabic movies and series, surely
some people will argue that it offered too a technical solution to overcome the
hurdle of the underdeveloped infrastructure in the region used for streaming
media, but a technical solution is an on daily basis engineering routine it’s
not innovation, and the whole concept of cinemoz is essentially a replica of
Hulu, we’re just following the trend.
MarkaVIP is an online discount store offering a wide range of mid to high end
brands, again what’s new here? Nothing, we neither invented e-commerce nor came
up with the e-discount concept, it’s a copy of an activity that has matured for
a long while in the west.

People are not searching to innovate, in Lebanon being early adopters in the region for a foreign technology makes us feel like gods coming to life straight down from the greek
mythology, and if you think of it it’s really ridiculous. Following the trend
and just following the trend is silly. Start-ups, technology conferences,
accelerators, are all by themselves imported concepts because they became the
trend in the west, and all these events loaded with talks that hold less value
than their form and size, are more about social events than real work. People
tend to associate themselves with them to get a social status and to boost
their egos while the work done and achieved is little, and if you find this
statement as incorrect please enlighten me and give me details on results, what
were the results of these events over the last few years?

Now back to universities and the lack of research, it is the
main problem because it’s the reason why we lack this engine of innovation,
most of the successful American start-ups and ventures were started by PhD
students and PhD programs’ drop outs. It is extremely important to promote the “think,
create, innovate” culture to be able to put forward something new and
interesting, the social and economic impacts of such a culture will be huge so
it’s about time that we start giving this sector the big importance it deserves.
Researching and discovering new ways to do things is an essential factor for any
civilization that wants to grow, to promote itself and to protect itself.

So think, create, and innovate and always ask yourself: Where
do I want to go today? The possibilities are endless if you harness the
potential you have in your mind.